the indicia of fraud...the indicia of fraud brian d. miller 875 fifteenth street nw suite 725...

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The Indicia of Fraud

Brian D. Miller 875 Fifteenth Street NW Suite 725

Washington DC 20005 bmiller@rjo.com www.rjo.com

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The Indicia of Fraud: High Risk Areas

Brian D. Miller

Former Inspector General, Federal Prosecutor, Vice Chair of the National Procurement Fraud Task Force,

Now Partner at Rogers Joseph O’Donnell, a Law Firm in San Fransciso and Washington, D.C.

Presentation at Pacific Northwest Intergovernmental Audit Forum

April 27, 2016

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Brian D. Miller

Brian D. Miller, Rogers Joseph O’Donnell • Former Inspector General, U.S. General Services

Administration, Confirmed by the Senate 2005 • Former Assistant United States Attorney, EDVA • Former Special Counsel on Healthcare Fraud to the

Deputy Attorney General of the United States • Former Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General of

the United States • Former Vice Chair of the National Procurement Fraud

Task Force

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Fraud Auditing Process

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Incentives/Pressure: a reason to commit fraud Opportunity: a lack of effective controls Rationalization/Attitude: an attempt to justify fraudulent behavior

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Rita Crundwell, City Treasurer for Dixon

• Crundwell's process for stealing city funds was not complicated. She opened a bank account for herself named RSCDA (Reserve Sewer Development Account), making it appear as if it were for the city, and she was the only signatory. She would have money deposited into another account called the Capital Development Fund, create false invoices, and then write checks from the fund payable to "Treasurer", which she would deposit into the RSCDA account.

• Crundwell's theft began in 1990 and continued for 22 years. In 1991, she stole $181,000. The theft in 2008 alone was $5.8 million.

• In the fall of 2011, while Crundwell was on vacation, a city employee discovered the account and many checks written on it.

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February 02, 2013 Taken from Taken from an article in Chicago Business Journal, available at: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130202/ISSUE01/302029978/how-dixons-auditors-missed-the-biggest-embezzler-of-all-time CliftonLarsonAllen LLP is the dog that didn't bark. The accounting firm was the auditor of the city of Dixon, while also performing other financial duties for the north-central Illinois community such as check processing. In addition, its personnel prepared tax returns for then-Dixon Comptroller Rita Crundwell. Yet CliftonLarson never caught on to the fact that Ms. Crundwell was an embezzler who siphoned away $53.7 million over 20 years in what is said to be the biggest municipal fraud in U.S. history. Now Dixon is demanding that the firm compensate it for the entire loss, contending in a lawsuit that the bookkeepers failed to connect easily linkable dots. The suit alleges, for instance, that CliftonLarson overlooked clearly bogus state invoices submitted to City Hall by Ms. Crundwell that resulted in six-figure checks that she steered into her own account at a local bank branch where Dixon kept its funds. In 2005, her city salary was $56,428. Ms. Crundwell, a 60-year-old horse breeder who had worked for her hometown since high school, is scheduled to be sentenced next week by a federal judge in Rockford after pleading guilty in November to one count of wire fraud. She faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Federal marshals have collected $8 million by auctioning off some of her ill-gotten goods, which included hundreds of horses and 14 cars. Litigation against CliftonLarson is only beginning to unfold. Dixon—a farm-country city of 15,700 and one of Ronald Reagan's boyhood homes—hired a high-profile Chicago personal-injury law firm, Power Rogers & Smith P.C., to sue for damages in late December.

How Dixon's auditors missed the biggest embezzler of all time

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Minneapolis accounting firm CliftonLarsonAllen will pay Illinois city $35M Dixon, Ill., had sued CliftonLarsonAllen for not discovering a long-running embezzlement scam by the city's former comptroller. • “It’s shocking. It’s negligence,” said Devon Bruce, the attorney

for the city. He added, “After 20 years, the irony is that it wasn’t college-trained accountants that caught this $53 million embezzlement, it was the city clerk.”

• Taken from Minneapolis Star Triburen: http://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-accounting-firm-cliftonlarsonallen-will-pay-illinois-city-35m/226068071/

Accounting Firm Settle for $35M

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It’s Not Just What You Have on Paper

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Las Vegas Conference

• GSA Western Regions Conference • Interim Report

– Unusual but necessary in light of the seriousness. – Stopping the spending – Stopping the travel Meeting with RA Telling the Deputy Administrator

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Western Regions Conference

OIG found: – Excessive, wasteful, and impermissible

expenditures. – GSA followed neither federal

procurement laws nor its own policy on conference spending in many instances.

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• $130,000 to plan the conference • $100,405 in employee travel costs • $30,000 for “scouting trip” pre planning meetings, and dry

run • $57.72 lunches and $48.80 breakfasts

Conference Planning

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Improper Contracting

GSA has several event planners, 2 for this event

GSA shared bid information GSA told vendor how much contract would be, GSA’s maximum price

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Excessive Spending on Food

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Other Impermissible and Questionable Expenses

$6,325

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FMIS (Financial System)

Pegasys (Financial System)

Citibank Credit Card

E2 Travel FinCEN

CLEAR

CHRIS (HR System)

• Interview witnesses • Analyze documents • Query databases • Analyze data from multiple sources • Legal analysis

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“Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.” - Justice Louis D. Brandeis

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GSA is achieving greater efficiencies and more savings as a result of GSA OIG’s work.

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Three Ways to Avoid a Scandal • Create a culture of integrity and adherence to the

rules. • Don’t cut corners.

• Acknowledge problems and admit mistakes. • Don’t make excuses.

• Support oversight and accountability. • Don’t rap about never being under OIG investigation.

“I’ll never be under OIG investigation.”

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Federal IGs

• Find issues and hold agency officials accountable. • Rules and regulations do matter. • Sometimes agency officials do not agree and have

difficulty admitting mistakes and accepting responsibility.

• “Sense of legal culpability.”

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Alert Report on Bannister

• Letter from the (Missouri) Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) warning of serious environmental risks---not produced.

• Not produced to local media in FOIA docs. • Environmental engineers in charge of managing

environment risks referred for 1001 & obstruction. • Town hall meetings.

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“There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.”

Fraud

-Benjamin Franklin

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Thank You!

The views set forth herein are the personal views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the organizations with which they are associated. Any presentation should not be construed or considered as legal advice on any individual matter or circumstance. The contents of this presentation are intended for general information purposes only. The

distribution of this presentation or its content is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship.

Brian D. Miller Rogers Joseph O’Donnell (202) 777-8950 BMiller@rjo.com